Need a little help from the experts. I have my duck boat which is nothing special just a 12 foot aluminum jon boat with a 9.9 horse to power it.i have developed a few leaks. One of which was a pretty good crack that i got when i high centered on a underwater stump in the dark. I took the time and reapired the crack properly. However now i have leaks coming from the rivets around the high centered area. I have tried to rebuck them and thought i had but when i put it in the water i learned it did not work. Most of my hunting is on the coast around oyster and rock. So my question is this i have come up with 2 options. I can either coat the bottom side of the rivets with Gluv-it and see if that works. Due to price i can not coat the whole bottom. Or the option which i am leading more to is buy a gallon of Herculiner bed liner and coat the entire bottom of the boat ( the outside of the boat not the inside) any body have any experience doing this and what are the pros and cons of this. I know the drag will slow me down but lets face it with the setup i got i am not going anywhere very fast anyways. Any help would be much appreciated.

I told you that place was sketchy lol

I would try the glove it first.... beeswax or whatever it is work well too

I don't know your situation. My first suggestion would be to take the boat down to a scrap yard with the title and sell it for aluminum scrap and use that money to go get a good used boat. Patching a short term option IMO. With all the flexing a boat goes through I can't see anything sticking to aluminum, long term anyway.

There are plenty of good used aluminum boats to be had at low costs. Take the scrap money, the cost of the product to fix the boat and your time and you can't justify the patchwork.

yeah my situation will not allow for that i just had my first child 2 and a half weeks ago and have tried to talk to the wife about doing just that but basically financially right now it is a situation of what i got is what i got so i have to try to make it the best i can to be able to use it for a while. believe me if that was an option i would much rather go that way but she has been really cool about still letting me go do my thing with a newborn at home so i wanna be as make do as i possibly can.

I've always heard good stuff about this.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabelas-Aluminum-Boat-Patch/533864.uts

No first hand experience.

I know off topic but here she is. My reason for no new/ used boat.

I know Navasot you did worn me and i was extra extra careful going through there. I was going slower than an idle. But man that area is crazy.

What about the paint in bed liner stuff and use it on the inside to seal it up?

Have you looked at welding? Years ago I had mine welded and no more.leaks. The shop in Nederland did great work. just an option.
Also a good reason to save money, good looking family.

passthru
that is what the Herculiner is. The reason i was considering doing the bottom of the boat is extra reinforcement and on the inside i have 3 benches that are riveted in so to do the inside i would have to take the benches out and then re rivet them in to be able to do the whole floor and i am pretty inexperienced at any of that and i think i would do more harm than good.

Hogman. i have looked into welding and called a few people here locally and the amount that they have quoted me i would be better off buying a different boat. The average price of the aluminum welders i have spoke with around here was anywhere from 250$ to 450$ and that seems a little to step for me.

I understand. I spent a lot of money having an old riveted Tracker boat welded once but I owned it for 13 years. If you have access to a friend with a wire welder you could buy a roll of flux core aluminum and do it yourself but it does take a little skill.

That doesn't seem right for the welding costs, I got a couple pinholes and a big crack around the bow eye welded on my 15 footer at Custom Marine Concepts in Spring for $100 last spring.

We patched my 2nd boat with Budweiser cans and JB Weld. It was ugly as hell, but it did the trick. If I could do it over again, I would cover the bottom with bedliner after applying the patches.

Duckboy: i did not contact them about any pricing due to the fact after i called the first couple and heard what they were spitting i assumed everyone was going to be in the same range. I will get ahold of them and talk to them and see what they have to say. Thanks.

first option this above. ^

I work in the aerospace industry in the composites and bonding world for 35 years where we bond fighter aircraft parts. The stuff we bond has to take all the environment and stress and speed these jets go through and not fly apart. Patching it to last will be very very time consuming. Second option: Drill out the rivets that are leaking and reinstall wet with JB weld. Very time consuming but the best long term fix. Third Option: If you try to seal the rivets surface prep is the main key same as in painting. You must have zero dirt and grease etc... and a sanded/scuffed surface of preferably 120-220 grit. It must be a water break tested clean surface. This means if you clean it and spray water over it and the water parts, it still has grease on the surface. The water should not break. To do it right you are talking about a lot of work. Even then you can not get the area clean under the rivets where it goes through the boat, You will be trying to get the sealant in these cracks by working it around and over the rivets. JB weld is a great product for this. It is flexible and bonds extremely strong. We use on F16s for various applications. I would not seal the entire bottom with anything, bed liner etc... even after you patch. This is only going to mask the problem and then you will have a bigger mess later on, if you have more leaks which are sure to happen. I have a small 1960 10' aluminum boat, and a 1970 15' aluminum boat that I have patched a few small areas this method back in the early 1980s. They are still holding. You can do less work but in a few years you will have the same issue.

Hammer the rivets tight (with two blocks of wood) and just use a silicon caulk around each rivet. Did this on an old jon boat and it held fine for a couple of years.

Don't use the bed liner stuff. Its going to add weight you don't want.

I had a buddy that painted the inside of his boat with the bed liner. It added about 100 plus pounds to the boat, which he ended up selling. When he put his gear and tried to bring a friend the boat was to overloaded.

Check out this product by West System made for boat rivet repair:




Repair Kit 650-K


Where to buy?

interesting product, have you used this Hopedale? If so how did it hold up?

i to am curious if you have used it hopedal?

I found it when I was looking at what could be used besides JB Weld. I had a 12' flat and had an expoxy product that I used with JB Weld that held up well. I'll have to swing by HomeDepot to see if they still carry it. Don't remmber what its called but a plumber friend gave it to me.

Nothing will beat getting the problem areas welded, but until you get the money I'd try the West System product since it was made for the sole purpose of riveted boats.

The Cabela's product also has good reviews.

Granted no matter what you do to repair, it will give way when you run through oyster reefs enough times.

That stuff looks pretty kewl.

Hang on to the title from your boat and go looking for another flat bottom that doesn't have a title. You can find boats allday long that aren't titled for next to nothing.

Several year ago I was in the same baot as you . I had a 14' flat bottom that had cracks and rivets that leaked everywhere I used some stuff from local welding supply that looks just like the stuff from Cabela's. It is a green stick that you heat up and smear over the rivit or cracks. Heat the rivet and use it like a glue stick smearing it over the area. It worked fine because it is some what flexible

JB weld has been my best friend on my 15ft. Jon.

Even if you can get most of it semi repaired, it's no big deal to run with a small leak.

Use it till you have saved up enough for a new one.

When you get ready to sell it, let me know. I may take it off your hands.

dav: is it really that simple?

hunter: i am going to try some of those sticks my brother got for me and i will seal up all the rivets with it. Then as a extra barrier i ordered some Gluv-it yesterday and i am going to put that on top of all the rivets as well as extra reinforcement. not a good feeling to have to bail a good 3 inches out of the boat every 20 minutes or so in the middle of the bay.

feather: i have tried the jb weld and for whatever reason even though i prepped the spot correctly it didnt take for whatever reason. i will keep that in mind when i am ready to part ways with it. It was given to me after my grandfather passed with the motor so i want to hang on to it till it weither sinks or splits.